National Pets Day . . . everyday by Kate Walker

Yesterday was apparently National Pets’ Day so on  my Facebook page I posted pictures of my two ‘official’ pets – Charlie the giant red and white Maine Coon cat  and his little ‘sister’ Ruby the black and white Cat’s Protection rescue who, chose us when we went looking for a new furry  Well, my official pets.

to love. These. I said – are my pets.

Then I moved away from my keyboard and went into the garden to organise things  before the sun set and darkness fell.  And that’s when I realised how inaccurate I had been when I said Charlie and Ruby were my pets.

W  well grown and fill the spaces wonderfully.  Then there’s a hedge and  what we laughingly call ‘the orchard’ beyond that. This space  is what my son used to label ‘the secret garden’ – it’s a rather hidden part of the garden beyond the hedge and there are some old apple trees and pear trees where there is always a huge crop of apples  but not so many pears to pick in the summer. Most of these apples  tend to become wind falls – that is when there is any typically British ‘spring’ weather the wild winds and the rain knock them to the ground and they all have to be gathered up before the birds get the. The windfalls go to the  home for retired horses where the horses and donkey there enjoy them with relish.

e have a large garden – with a long lawn and then a shrubbery down one side of the fence. Lots of shrubs and they have all been there for years so they are

So – as well as the two cats  - there’s the horses and the donkeys that are ‘pets’.

Back home in my garden I have a morning  and an evening ‘pet’ routine.  The mornings are for the birds who are usually sitting waiting for me before I venture out the door first thing. You’d think that feeding the birds would be simple – some wild bird seed  . . .and that’s it? But  no – I don’t know if we had particularly fussy eaters  but it goes something like this: wild bird seed on the hanging feeder for the  doves, the starlings, the sparrows.  The suet balls hanging in a tree  for the blackbirds, the ravens and the crows –  then suet cakes on the ground and mealworms for the robins, the bluetits, the seagulls – yes we get seagulls  even though we’re  miles from the sea . . . .

Right now it’s nesting and egg-laying time and it seems like some of the eggs are hatching as there is a HUGE amount of food disappearing every day. The birds themselves are so small that we assume they must be feeding babies because they’d be bursting at the seams if they ate all the food themselves.

When the birds have had their fill in the mornings things get a bit quieter – at least until the squirrels arrive.  I’ve tried to protect the bird food from these greedy little things but they have wo

rked out ways of hanging upside down from the bird feeders and pulling out peanuts and sunflower seeds to gobble up.

The evening is the time to put out the food for the hedgehogs. In the UK hedgehogs are in danger of becoming very rare so we’re always glad to encourage the family of these cute prickly creatures  who live at the bottom of the garden – they love the shrubbery and the little wooden ‘hedgehog houses’ we have set up for them.  He haven’t actually seen any of the hedgehogs this year but we know they are there because all the food goes and we have seen  bits of hedgehog poo around. What do we feed hedgehogs? Well, you can get special hedgehog food – but we use kitten crunchies and they love that. Sometime they hedgehogs get hungry early

and they come out looking for food before dusk. That’s when the cats play with them, sniffing and patting them and sometimes jumping right over them

.

So as you can see I have more than just my two beautiful cats as pets There are the horses and donkeys at the rescue centre -  . Out in the garden it’s more of a mini wildlife park – birds, gulls, squirrels and hedgehogs – and now I think we also have an occasional visiting fox!   I love feeding them and enjoy watching them from our garden room – but the animal feeding bill is ridiculous!

You can read more about me and my books on my web site and my blog -  and catch up with me too on my Facebook page

Spring fever? with Kate Walker

I don’t know if it’s spring where you live – or if, on the other side of the  world you’re like my sister and heading into autumn, but here in the UK it’s supposed to be heading into – well into  - spring. I say that ‘supposed to be’ with resigned ruefulness  because  it might be April 12^th – but at the moment there is no sign of spring. 

At least not in the weather – which is as grey and wet and  miserable as it has been all April long – and before that really.  There is an old saying that March is supposed to ‘come in like a lion and go out like a lamb’ . . .well, there was plenty of the ‘lion’ about March with snow blizzards and high winds and freezing temperatures  at the beginning of the month  - and at the end.   So that month never went out like a lamb but more like and even bigger, even wilder lion. And March has been much the same, apart from one lovely weekend that I spent at Cirencester Royal Agricultural University,running a writing retreat. So the weather was fine – and  so was the company – but I spent most of the days indoors and missed the sunshine.

And now, a couple of weeks into April, I’m still missing the sun!    But one  things I’m not missing are the other  signs of spring in different ways .  Our garden is full of birds singing their hearts out on the tops of the trees (those are the blackbirds) to announce to the world that they have a beautiful nest and are looking for a lady to share it with.  Then there are the starling family who come and  gobble down the suet and seeds in the fat balls  hanging on a lower branch of another tree, or on the birdhouse.  And  Tim Robin  and his mate come down to feed on the ground, eat suet cakes with insects in them ready to feed the hatchlings from their eggs in their nest.

All these mean extra extra jobs for me to do  as I fill up the feeding trays and the hanging feeders.  And now that the days are getting a little warmer – I said ‘a little’, it’s not much – there is another job, another set of critters to feed. The hedgehogs who live at the bottom of the garden have woken up from their hibernation and they are hungry!  They wander about in the night looking for food to strengthen them after months of being curled up in the straw in their special wooden houses to sleep away the worst of the winter. They  must regret poking their noses out because as soon as they venture into the garden it’s so cold and wet and windy that they will wonder if it really is spring.

I’ve just been out to fill up all the feeder bowls and trays and I can see little paw prints in the mud so I know they’re around.

So although the weather is distinctly doubtful,  I’m still going to call it Spring – and hope that from now on the days will brighten and the sun will appear.  I think we  all need it.

But at least the book I’m working on revisions for opens in the middle of a wild and blustery rain storm  - so the weather outside is proving some sort of inspiration, if not the beauty of nature waking up in spring.  Oh well –  as the rhyme goes:

March winds and April Showers

Bring forth May flowers.

We’ve had the first two (though it’s been April downpours, not showers) so I’m hoping for plenty of those  flowers!

Raoul Cardini will have his revenge!

His preferred method? Ruthless, irresistible seduction!

Imogen O’Sullivan is horrified when charismatic tycoon Raoul breaks up her engagement and makes her his own convenient bride! She once surrendered everything to Raoul—body, heart and soul. But as he stalks back into her life it’s clear he has punishment in mind—not just passion! Can Imogen resist Raoul’s potent brand of delicious vengeance?

You can read more about me and my books on my web site and my blog -  and catch up with me too on my Facebook page